The following comes from a Dec. 6 story by John-Henry Westen on LifeSiteNews.com.
The death of South African former President Nelson ‘Madiba’ Rolihlahla Mandela on Thursday has led to an outpouring of glowing praise for the man most known for ending apartheid – a system of racial segregation. However, pro-life leaders have warned that praise from Christian leaders is inappropriate given Mandela’s role in bringing abortion-on-demand and homosexual “marriage” to South Africa.
According to official statistics, nearly a million unborn children have been killed in South Africa since President Mandela signed legislation in 1996 permitting abortion on demand two years after taking office. Same-sex ‘marriage’ was legalized in 2006, with Mandela having supported it long before its passage.
In the face of praise for Mandela coming even from Catholic leaders all over the world, Paul Tuns, the editor of the Canadian pro-life newspaper The Interim, wrote, “A little balance is necessary in our reaction to the man who fought one injustice, but helped institute another.”
Similarly England’s John Smeaton, President of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children commented on his blog saying, “It is absolutely vital that Catholic leaders do not allow themselves to become respecters of persons, swept away by personality cults. Catholic leaders have a duty to stand up to public figures with anti-life and anti-family records, however praiseworthy their record may be on other issues.”
Smeaton’s comments came in reaction to praise for Mandela from the Bishops conference of South Africa. However, since then, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Pope Francis have also issued statements of praise for Mandela.
Pope Francis’s official statement says, “Paying tribute to the steadfast commitment shown by Nelson Mandela in promoting the human dignity of all the nation’s citizens and in forging a new South Africa built on the firm foundations of non-violence, reconciliation and truth, I pray that the late President’s example will inspire generations of South Africans to put justice and the common good at the forefront of their political aspirations.”
Cardinal Dolan’s statement calls Mandela a “hero to the world.” The Cardinal recalls the praise for Mandela from Pope John Paul II’s visit to South Africa in 1995.
That visit came before Mandela passed the law permitting abortion.
It was 1996 when Mandela signed into law one of the world’s most pro-abortion laws. Passage of the “Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Bill” was assured since Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) refused its members a free vote on the issue of providing state-funded abortion on demand.
The same year, Mandela’s new constitution made South Africa the first country to place “sexual orientation” alongside race and religion as a restricted grounds for discrimination – something that paved the way for homosexual ‘marriage’ a decade later….
To read the entire posting, click here.
I was alarmed and startled to hear Mandela compared to Bl. Mother Theresa and the Holy Father at last Sunday’s Mass homily. I was shocked knowing the track record of Mandela before and after he became president. He was a marxist and the ANC bombing campaign killed hundreds of innocent bystanders. His record on abortion and homo marriage is equally well known. How can our bishops and priests be so ignorant of history that is readily accessible?
These are windows into the souls of Shepherds, I find myself drifting slowly towards SSPX.
Marcel Lefebvre openly supported Jean-Marie le Pen and Francisco Franco. If authoritarian prohibitions on homosexuality and abortion are your primary gauge of a political leader, Augusto Pinochet would have been the most virtuous figure of the 20th century, and the current ones would be found in places like Sudan, Uganda, El Salvador, Russia, and various military dictatorships and Islamic states.
It’s amazing to me to see this bizarro world where Nelson Mandela is viewed as the embodiment of evil. Would you prefer him to have been more a figure like Robert Mugabe?
Contrast Pope Francis and Cardinal Dolan’s gushing of Mandela with His Excellency, Bishop Tobin of Providence, RI: Bishop Thomas Tobin, in a statement posted Sunday on the diocesan website, said that while there is much to admire in Mandela’s life and public service, there’s a part of his legacy that is “not at all praiseworthy, namely his shameful promotion of abortion in South Africa.”
“While we pray for the peaceful repose of President Mandela’s immortal soul and the forgiveness of his sins, we can only regret that his noble defense of human dignity did not include the youngest members of our human family, unborn children,” Tobin wrote.
I know most of the world already sees him as St. Nelson, but let’s be honest here; the man did much that should not be celebrated and his soul should be prayed for.
God bless Bishop Tobin. May the Good Lord give us more like him.
Bishop Tobin shows that he does not care about your kids after they are born. May the good lord give us more like him?
SNAP believes that Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin should aggressively reach out to anyone who has knowledge of either predator’s crimes, especially because they are known offenders who walk free. For the sake of public safety, Tobin should also post on his website the names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics. (More than 15 bishops, a small minority, have taken this simple, inexpensive, proven method of alerting parents about and protecting kids from dangerous predators. Tobin, however, has repeatedly refused to do so, even though his diocese has one of the highest rates of accused pedophile priests in the US.)
In their rush to be part of the headlines, the hierarchy of the Church emits statements that are incongruous to known facts.
Mandella was pro-abortion, pro-SSM, a Marxist and an unrepentant ANC terrorist, and ultimately responsible for many deaths.
Tell me, please, why would anyone in the Church sing the praises of such a person with so much blood on his hands?
BOB…Tell me, please, why would anyone in the Church sing the praises of such a person with so much blood on his hands? First you have to explain to me why the Church has in its history killed millions upon millions of innocent men, women, and children in their name for little or no reason. It would be agreeable if you addressed that before you ever judge any other person.
“Pope Francis’s official statement says, “Paying tribute to the steadfast commitment shown by Nelson Mandela in promoting the human dignity of all the nation’s citizens…”
How on earth can Madela’s promotion of gay “marriage” and abortion possibly be consistent with promoting human dignity? This appears to be yet another undisciplined exhortation from the Pope, unless he qualified his praise elsewhere in his statement.
As I have written previously, Hitler, Stalin and Mao did some good things too, but they will be remembered for being evil, and not for the small beneficial things they accomplished. It is disgusting to compare this man with Mother Theresa and other saintly people. He was responsible for introducing abortion into South Africa, even to girls as young as 14 years old. To say he was a great man is diabolitical disorientation. May God have mercy on us when we honor a modern day Herod!
IN THE END MY IMMACULATE HEART WILL TRIUMPH!
Thank you Father Karl. A sign of the times. Diabolical disorientation. The martyrs and saints were not respecters of personality cults. Would St. Joseph the Protector of the infant Jesus and the Universal Church have ever called Herod a hero for occasionally accomplishing something that was not wicked and evil? Our Lady of Fatima warned the world that Russia would continue to spread her errors if mankind did not turn away from sin. Our Lady of Akita warned consecrated souls about compromise. It is a terrible compromise to choose to *only* praise Mandela who promoted the culture of death, the butchering of innocent babies and same sex unions in order to appease the expectations of the world.
Now Vladimir Putin of Russia is claiming to be the moral compass of the world.
Something is wrong with this picture.
Sorry, I can’t think of any small beneficial things that Hitler, Stalin, or Mao “accomplished.” Little help? Anyone?
Well, they all had zero unemployment. Keep that in mind when we hear criticisms of Mandela because unemployment went up after the racist regime of the white South Africans.
Hymie, our history teacher in high school in the 1950s, was listing off all the evil Hitler had done, and there was plenty. All of a sudden a young teen in our class who had come over from Germany stood up and loudly said, “We were starving and Hitler fed us.” Evidently, some people thought he was doing good for them, perhaps had no idea of all the evil Hitler was doing too or did not care because they were poor and had no food, regarded him as a hero. I don’t, you don’t but evidently that young man did.
I know not seems. Looking for actual benefits, not supposed ones.
Both Pope Francis and Cdl Dolan are committing a serious offense against the truth by their politically correct praise of this Stalinist revolutionary. I am old enough to remember the atrocities committed by the African National Congress, which was an extension of the CPSA. Mandela was arrested and convicted of acts of sabotage. He was offered release from jail but refused to renounce terrorism. He finally achieved his ambition and made South Africa into a supposedly integrated multi-racial state. The new South Africa is a basket case.
It has the highest unemployment and crime rates of any modern republic. The murder rate under Apartheit was around seven thousand a year; today is well above forty-thousand. This is the dark side of South Africa everyone turns a blind eye to. Black majority rule is no unmitigated blessing in South Africa. The entire liberal establishment has its head in the sand, the Catholic Church included.
I can’t believe you just said that apartheid was better than the current state in South Africa.
Seidl gave a statistic, and you , YFC, offered a non-sequitor. How sad.
As Western Schneider pointed out well, below (at 12/12 11:31), black South Africans were treated as subhumans or monkeys. So Seidl and, apparently you, believe that is better to have a society that has massive gross violations of human dignity and rights, a virtual slavery system as it were, to a democratic society with a high unemployment rate. And you go on, believing that statistics trump human rights. THAT is even more sad.
Mandela certainly flirted with Communism, in which the means of production and distribution are owned by all, but he turned the country into a Constitutional Democracy. Under apartheid, only the white minority were seriously entitled to own anything of substance.
So you all through out the “C” word, yet neglect to realize that the economic system that he might at one time have favored was far far better than the economic system apartheid.
ANC was justified in waging war against a Regime that would treat other human beings as sub humans or monkeys. Sometimes white people forget the injustice their people have wrought on others.
You are crying for a few acts of violence while in the eyes of those killed by the ANC, they were nothing more than monkeys.
Yes its possible to give people no option but indiscriminate violence to resist injustice.
That Said, Mandela was not a saint.
Gee! Schneider,
Thanks for admitting the obvious, that Communist, pro-sodomite, pro-necklacing, Mandela was not a Saint. With that kind of wisdom, you can go to the back of the class!
Have you seen pictures of what Mandela and his comrades have done to Johannesburg?
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Kenneth,
The struggle against Racial dehumanization is justified. What does it matter if a monkey kills a human being. That is what Boars called Africans. Monkeys.
Now, After that, passing laws to kill babies and sodomize others turned Mandela into another Boar.
From what I have read on line, Bishop Tutu was instrumental in helping to stop the horrible practice of necklacing — putting tires around the necks of not only whites, but black police officers and young black people who did not side with their cause and setting them on fire. God bless Bishop Tutu for that one even though he might not be right on everything. I do not know how much of this Mandela himself was involved in, but his wife Winnie really, really pushed such horrible methods. She was not faithful to him either while he was in prison. Bishop Tobin is right, their souls really do need prayers, right along with any whites who did evil to any innocent blacks.
The Anonymous post at 8:45pm yesterday and this one are mine.
The Lord have mercy……I have my concerns
In this time of memorial of a long life we should remember that Nelson Mandela was, in 1962, a card-carrying Communist and a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party. May he receive his just reward.
This is what happens when Church leaders get involved in politics rather than Saving Souls. Their opinions are more misguided than the average man on the street. And when they speak using their Church titles, they give the entire Church a black eye. No wonder Catholics are leaving in great numbers.
Between Church leaders involvement in politics, the USCCB and Church approved charities with their hand in the government grant till $$$$$$$$, and their lack of encouraging ALL literate persons to read and study the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” in the USA and Canada,– most need to be fired for neglecting the primary responsibility of their jobs.
The Pope and Church leaders are certainly entitled to their personal opinions.
However they should keep these ‘opinions’ to themselves rather than using their Church titles to propogate them.
I would hope that none of them approve of the Mandela “Necklacing” practices.
Necklacing is the practice of summary execution and torture carried out by forcing a rubber tire, filled with petrol, around a victim’s chest and arms, and setting it on fire. The victim may take up to 20 minutes to die, suffering severe burns in the process.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necklacing
And yet another mixed message, nice.
The Pope and Abp Dolan have publicily disgraced themselves and brought scandal to the Faith.
May they be so humble that they publicly correct themselves. Who are their ignorant advisers?
Keep wishing. Its not going to happen.
Have you ever been to the sentencing hearing for someone being convicted of murder?
Friends of the convicted come forward and say what a great guy he is because he was kind to animals and helped his mother. Never mind that he killed a child with a knife in cold blood.
Witnessing this latest spectacle of hierarchical hubris, it is any wonder why Obama is regularly honored by various Catholic institutions? One gets the impression that if it weren’t for those nasty contraception mandates in Obamacare, the bishops would be just peachy with the law, despite all the carnage and destruction it is inflicting on the health care of Americans who already had insurance. Sorry to say this, but I cringe now every time Cardinal Dolan opens his mouth.
Mandela is worthy of support for the game changing politics in South Africa that made all the difference in the world to equality of races and current peace in that country. True, his early career as a revolutionary and campaign to overthrow the government by force got him imprisoned for 27 years, which was more than warranted; but so, too, is praise for his yeoman’s service getting that country united and with a far better future for is black residents. Godspeed, Nelson!
good cause, Mandela is unworthy of any support as a result of his game changing legalization of the murder of one particular class of innocent South Africans. His policy, of selective murder, has made all the difference in the world toward the advancement of legalized open warfare waged on a certain class of South Africans solely based on where they happen to be living. May God have mercy on South Africa!
Time to pull your head out of the sand, Good Cause.
Nelson Mandela
Militant Pro abort
Strong Supporter of gay “marriage”
Convicted Terrorist (blowing up buildings with innocent victims inside
Life Long Communist
Director of the terrorist operations of the African National Congress
Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s quote:
“Nelson Mandela truly made the world a better place.”
If the Cardinal thinks Mandela is “a hero to the world” and made this a better place, maybe he should deny himself Communion. He supported Obama… he loves Joe Biden… and he admires murderer/terrorist Mandela…..whose side is he on?
Look at Obama at the memorial service for Mandela. Obama looks almost as caring and broken up in his sadness as the immense regret and sadness that he says he feels for those whose heath insurance has been cancelled. Why would Cardinal Dolan ever want the Catholic Church to be a politically correct cheerleader for Barack Obama’s agenda instead of being spiritually correct shepherd leading all souls to eternal life? Obama is fooling around during Mandela’s memorial like an immature teen. Meanwhile his wife angrily glares at him. Michele Obama knew how very bad it looked for a President to be seen worldwide yukking it up at Mandela’s memorial service. Why didn’t Cardinal Dolan have the same instinct about yukking it up at the Al Smith dinner? It is no mystery why a great number of Catholic leaders and laity also fooled around when it came to the salvation of their souls. They looked the other way and voted for this empty acting vessel. Fun photo ops have consequences.
https://nypost.com/2013/12/12/obamas-flirt-with-danish-prime-minister-is-a-disgrace/
Catherine,
IT IS CALLED THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Guess what the erstwhile Nelson Mandela may have said when finally confronting the THREE last things that ALL of us will have to face at our particular judgement, i.e., JUDGEMENT, HEAVEN OR HELL: “uh-oh, I get it now, legalized abortion meant the murder of innocent unborns and “same-sex marriage” is an ABOMINATION before the Lord.” Way too harsh? Perhaps. One of the things I DO know for sure is that all those who really HAVE TO HAVE dominion over others in politics, education, religion or whatever had better be constantly aware of the “four last things,” and be careful of what you wish and work for. Please pray for me, I’ll always pray for you. God Bless All, Markrite
Not only was Mandela’s support for abortion shameful, so too is the praise given by so many of his admirers (including clergy of the Catholic Church). Unlike Bishop Tobin, they don’t seem to take abortion very seriously.
Read ‘Tears from South Africa’ https://fjdalessio.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/tears-from-south-africa
Very few people in the history of the world have created more change than Mr. Mandela. He took people from slavery to democracy. He did use some terrorist methods to accomplish his aims. But, sometimes the ends justify the means. Even our own country is based on the idea that “when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people…” We also are founded on this basic belief: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Mr. Mendela led a revolution to bring about the change, the same as our founding fathers led our revolution and later, we went to war to end slavery of our people. Yes, he may not have been perfect, but a country that is free, even with high unemployment and less than perfect economics, is better than a country where the majority of its people live in slavery and second class citizenship. The Pope was right in recognizing this great man.
Bob One: Your comparing Mandela’s revolution against the white settlers of South Africa with the American Revolution against the King of England is absurd. The two events have little in common. I heard the normally fair-minded Bill O’Reilly advance the same argument the other night and I almost choked on my supper.
Bob One with your “ends justifies the means” philosophy, which is against Church teaching by the way, you have just given the green light to all the Timothy James McVeighs; the Jewish groups like the ones who blew up the King David Hotel; Al Queda, Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood groups who bomb cites with children in them and plant bombs over here killing and maiming children; people who bomb Planned Parenthood buildings, right along with the bombings of the ANC. After all, one reason McVeigh hated our government was because of the killing of children at Ruby Ridge by our own government at that time, and he felt “oppressed”. Do you think what he did was right? I think not. Sorry, but although I am not a pacifist, I do not think like you. I am pro life and against abortion, but I would never encourage the bombing of a Planned Parenthood building or facility because any man, woman or child walking by could be maimed or killed. Bob, why don’t you use your head for a change. You have just give the “green light” to every kook and wacko out there.
Perhaps I was harsh on you, Bob. If so I am sorry, but you certainly need to clarify what you said about “the end justifies the means.” Probably Mandela had mellowed with age and confinement, but his pro abortion, pro sodomy legislations were anything but good. Two men ramming their body parts up where they do not belong, does not a marriage make. It is dangerous and disease ridden no matter what some people say encouraging it, and anyone who knowingly approves it is partially responsible for any injuries or deaths as a result besides the destruction of families that is often another result of such practices..
Anne: Wish I’d caught this earlier. Jewish groups did not bomb the King David Hotel. The Irgun bombed the wing which housed the British Military Command, more accurately, the Criminal Division, i.e., Military Intelligence. A world of difference. Information there was used to arrest Jews throughout Palestine who had escaped Hitler, and like the British, had in some cases fought him. Unlike Arab Muslims who had allied themselves with Hitler.
The Irgun also gave the Brits multiple telephone warnings about the impending bombing, since admitted by the Brits. One British officer replied, “We don’t take orders from Jews.” Some heard the rumors and escaped. Though a legitimate target, because of the unexpected results the Irgun never carried out a similar mission, and Jewish groups throughout Palestine condemned the bombing.
That’s a far cry from the muslim groups named, and from Mandela/ANC terror bombings of civilians, and their torturous/murderous Reeducation Camps. He hung out with scum like Arafat, Khadafi, and his hero Castro, while condemning the US for “unspeakable atrocities.”
Yea, One Man, One Vote, Once.
People who praise the political courage of Nelson Mandela, without also prominently mentioning his historic, active, and continuous support of abortion, and virtually life-long belief in Marxism (including confiscation of property and an African version of “collectivism”) mislead, if not lie, to their listeners. If these same people are religious (such as Pope Francis, a good number of Catholic bishops, and the ubiquitous Bishop Tutu, who referred to Mandela as a “saint” and “our father”) they create scandal. As many have already mentioned (good going “Fr. Karl” and “Fr. Peter”), many dictators did praiseworthy things: keeping a lid on the economy and inflation (Hitler); building a good road system (Hitler); helping internal infrastructure, including largely eliminating malaria in the Pontine Marshes under the “bonifica integrale” (Mussolini); creating universal education and health care, and outlawing prostitution (Castro) — hey, these guys did good!! But they were evil, and their administrations were evil, and they lead many, many, to their deaths, if not to damnation. Who is watching the Catholic store? No wonder so many children in the good old USA grow up to be moral ninnies. Doesn’t Pope-Man-of-the-Year, and his “Office of Bishops” know about these things? What Bishop Tobin bravely said recently should be what the Vatican said, and what the USCCB said, and what every Catholic said: but wait — maybe people will think us strange, too Catholic, too weird to get invited to cool events, with free food and the intoxication of power everywhere. In fact, it seems that no Catholic leader should do many of these events. Nope, no bishop or cardinal should go to an Al Smith dinner, or to any other event where they break bread with unrepentant moral lepers and evil doers. Yes, remember good Catholic leaders, what happened to John the Baptist when he publicly told Herod, “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife. Now Herodias laid snares for him: and was desirous to put him to death and could not.” (Mark 6: 18-19; DRV.) Of course, we all know what finally happened. Scary what happens to a real Man of Faith, isn’t it.
Bob One, would you also agree that very few people in the history of the world have created more CHANGE than Hitler? How about Stalin? Mao Tse Tung?
“hope and CHANGE”, the progressives mantra!!!!!!! The masses OPIUM!!!!
Editors: Ok, you censored my original comment, but you could at least post my rebuttal.
That wasn’t my rebuttal to the censoring.
This was:
Dear Editors: You were wrong to censor my post (the “Some of my best friends . . .” one). It was brief, concise, and accurate, with a side order of funny. And if by any stretch of the imagination you deemed it racist, well then your moderators are too young for the historical terms and context, or just old fuddy-duddies.
My point was to lightheartedly show the absurdity of Card. Dolan’s attempt to be relevant….
Aaand you censored out the funny again. What gives? In no way was it ridiculing the Cardinal. They were mere examples of everyday familiar attempts at relevancy that fall humorously flat. And I only gave them because you wouldn’t print my first post. Geesh.
Hynie, get over it. It’s their website, and they have the right to omit stuff they find offensive.
Nothing to get over, Michael. I just hate to see a halfway decent Catholic website display such squeamishness, just as you would if they had censored your misspelling of my name. Hah.